Nearly 57 percent of total income of five national parties during financial year 2013-14 was from sale of coupons (smaller donations), while bigger donations formed 22 percent of the income of the parties, according to a report by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), based on the data collected from the Election Commission of India (ECI).

The ECI, in its letter dated 19 November, 2014 issued to the president/general secretary of all political parties, stated that it was mandatory for the parties to submit details of their audited report to the Commission.

This report analyses the total income and expenditure incurred by the national parties during financial year 2014, as declared by the parties in their IT returns submitted to the ECI.

The data of five political parties - Indian National Congress (INC), CPM, Bahujan Samajwadi party, Nationalist Congress Party and Communist Party of India - was analysed to derive the results by ADR.

The due date for submission of annual audited accounts for the parties was 30 November, 2014. BJP is yet to submit its report.

The five national parties, whose income tax returns are available in public domain, declared a total income of Rs 844.71 crore, collected from all over India.

This also includes income from unknown sources, which is the income declared in the IT returns but without giving source for donations below Rs 20,000. Such unknown sources include ‘sale of coupons’, ‘purse money’, ‘relief fund’, ‘miscellaneous income’, ‘voluntary contributions’, ‘contribution from meetings/ morchas’ etc. The details of donors of such voluntary contributions are not available in the public domain.

Total income of political parties from unknown sources (income specified in the IT Returns whose sources are unknown), for the FY 2013-14 is Rs 673.08 crores, which is 79.68% of the total income of the parties.

Here is a breakdown of the report: